Lately, standardized testing, education reform, and the quality of education in United States public schools are constant topics in the news. Conflicting messages make it difficult to get to the heart of the issue. Are we falling behind China when it comes to educating our children? Are we placing too much emphasis on standardized test [...]

Public school ratings are released each year to try to establish a wide database of information for parents to look into. When it comes to choosing a school for your child, the ultimate goal is for the best education one can both afford and the school can provide. There are endless categories that are used [...]

In the past when most people attended elementary or middle school, they just arrived in the morning, attended classes and then went home in the afternoon, and that was that. However, the day that we made the switch over the high school, things changed drastically for most of us. Many people became involved in the [...]

Even though using home schooling as a method of educating your child is not nearly as popular as it once was, it is still as somewhat common option for your child’s education that is all too often left unexplored. However, you are probably going to be curious as to how it stacks up against your [...]

Public Schools

Are you getting ready to send your child or children to school soon? If so, have you decided where you would like them to attend? While a large number of parents are now making the decision to send their children to private schools, there are others who aren't so sure. If you are leaning towards a public school, which most parents are, you may be wondering if you are making the right decision. The best way to know it is to examine the advantages and disadvantages of public schools.

One of the many advantages to sending your child to a public school is the diversity that they will see. Although private schools are diverse, you will find that most are centered on a particular issue, such as religion. By sending your child to a public school, they will likely end up having daily contact with children of different gender, races, and religions. In a world where diversity is becoming more of an issue, this is extremely important. In fact, going to school in a diverse atmosphere may better help to prepare for your child for life after schooling.

What is taught at most public schools is also important. In some areas of the United States , you will find that not all private schools are mandated. Essentially, this means that they can teach just about whatever they want or don't want. Of course, you will find that most private schools cover the topics that should be covered; however, your child may have more of a choice when attending a public school. For example, most public schools give children choices, when it comes to the classes that they want to attend. When it comes to foreign languages, most public schools offer French and Spanish; however, some schools have even more foreign language classes available.

The cost is another advantage to public schools. For the most part, public schools are free to attend. While you do end up paying school taxes and you are required to purchase school supplies for your child, you will find that the cost of attending a public school is significantly lower than the cost of attending a private school. However, it is also important to note that many private schools have scholarship programs or financing options for parent's who would like their children to attend a private school, but cannot afford to send them to one. The type of financing options or scholarships available, if they are available, will all depend on the school in question.

As you can see, there are a number of advantages to sending your child to a public school, but it is also important to remember that there are disadvantages as well. One of those disadvantages is the attention that your child may receive. It has been noted that many of the public schools in America have a poor student teacher ratio. This ratio is used to describe how many adults or teachers there are when compared to the students. If you would like your child to get a more hands on learning experience or be able to work one-on-one with their teacher, you may want to think about sending your child to a private school.

The above mentioned advantages are just a few of the many that exist. If you would like additional information, you are advised to schedule a consultation appointment with school officials. Most private and public school officials would be more than willing to set up a meeting with you, to discuss all of your options.

Public Schools: Benefits, Advantages and Disadvantages of Sending your Child to a Public School

They say that education is one of the greatest gifts that you can give to your kids since everything that they have learned in school will be the tools that they will be using as they grow older while learning how to deal with life.

If you have kids that are about to go to school but you are still deciding whether to send them to a public school or a private school, you should understand that sending your child to a public school has certain advantages over sending them to a private school or the other types of school systems. Learning about these benefits of enrolling your kids in a public school will help you make the decision and choose the right type of school system for your kids.

Public Schools: Comparing the Different Types of School Systems with Public School System

When the time comes that you already need to send your child in school, you need to compare the different types of school systems first in order to choose the best one for your child. This is true especially if this is your firstborn we are talking about, which means that this will also be the first time that you will be making a decision in which type of school system to choose.

The most basic type of school systems includes home schools, public schools and private schools. While a specific type of school system may have certain advantages over the others, it is important that you look closely at the system that will benefit you and your child the most.

Public Schools: Public School Education is Free

One of the main reasons why a lot of parents choose to send their children in public schools is because they no longer have to worry about paying for high to exorbitant tuition fees that are common in private schools. In fact, surveys that have been done around the world revealed that around 70% of students all over the globe are actually enrolled in public schools because of the fact that public schools do not charge tuition fees. While some people believe that the kind of education being provided by a public school is not the same with private schools, this is not always true.

If you are one of the people who believe that the kind of education or academic programs that public schools provide to their students are not of the same high quality as the ones that private schools provide, you should do your research.

If you are planning to send your kid to a public school within your area, make sure that you take your time to visit and check out this educational institution first to find out more about the quality of education they provide. Also ensure that the environment of the school will help your child become a good individual inside and outside the school.

Public Schools: Public School Systems are run by the Federal Government

If you are wondering why there are no tuition fees in public schools, you might also be asking who runs the public school system. The Federal Government is actually responsible for running all of the public schools in the United States. Since the Federal Government manages the public school system, it means that they have set aside a specific budget for public schools, called education budget. The Federal Government usually gives free tuition fees that students and their parents can take advantage of. This benefit of sending students to public schools is one of the major reasons why a lot of students, especially those from average families prefer going to public schools.

Public Schools: Public School Systems Offer a more Complete and Thorough Learning Experience

One of the things that you might have heard about public schools is that they have larger classrooms. This is actually true. Public schools generally have larger classrooms because they have a bigger population of students compared to the population of students in private schools.
While some people may think of this as a disadvantage since a bigger class would mean less attention to individual students, this is not always the case. Since public school students are exposed to more people with various socio-economic backgrounds, they can learn how to get along better with anyone that they meet regardless of differences in their socioeconomic and cultural status.

Because public schools generally cater to a wide range of children coming from differing socio-economic classes as well as various backgrounds, sending your kids to a public school will help them learn how to communicate with other people and build good relationships despite of these differences. You have to keep in mind that this is the type of environment where most individuals live in as adults, so sending your children to a public school means that you are already providing them with an opportunity to learn how to live with other people by understanding that they have different values and backgrounds.

Public Schools: Advantages of Sending your Children to Public Schools over Private Schools

Since a lot of parents mostly compare public schools with private schools rather than home schools, it is important to learn about the benefits and advantages of the public school system compared to the educational system that private schools follow.

One of these benefits is that parents are provided with the chance to minimize their expenses. For instance, aside from not having to pay for high tuition fees, most public schools provide transportation for their students who live far. This is not a common situation with private schools. By knowing these benefits that you and your child can get from enrolling in a public school, you should already be able to make the wisest and the best decision for your child.

Public Schools in US Territories

Lately, standardized testing, education reform, and the quality of education in United States public schools are constant topics in the news. Conflicting messages make it difficult to get to the heart of the issue. Are we falling behind China when it comes to educating our children? Are we placing too much emphasis on standardized test scores? Are charter schools the answer?

America’s Founding Fathers set the bar pretty high when they envisioned a country where every citizen was entitled to a quality public education. What began as an idea grew into an ideal. Universal education for all citizens is a concept as American as apple pie and baseball. Yet, as our nation grows, our public education system has not been growing with us. Most Americans recognize that we need to make changes to our public school system to ensure all of our children receive quality education. In fact, a recent study by Phi Delta Kappa International and Gallup found:

The public has high regard for the public schools, wants needed improvement to come through those schools, and has little interest in seeking alternatives.

The public has high regard for the public schools, wants needed improvement to come through those schools, and has little interest in seeking alternatives.

So what exactly is the state of America’s public school system and what is the level of quality of education our students receive? It turns out that arguments over hot button issues like school choice, bilingual education, and testing miss the point entirely.

Currently, American public schools are facing some serious issues. Over the past thirty years, public school teachers have been forced to ‘do more with less’ due to budget cuts and lack of funding. At some schools students must pay cash out-of-pocket to participate in intramural sports. The lack of quality teachers presents an overwhelming challenge to both states and local school districts. Teacher shortages are most severe at the secondary level, where advanced content area expertise and academic majors in fields like math and science are vitally important for student achievement. According to the New York Times:

The annual cost of prison for an inmate is more than double what is spent on an individual public school student.

Eight years after Congress passed the No Child Left Behind act, with the goal of 100 percent proficiency in math and reading, most states hovered between 20 and 30 percent proficiency, and 70 percent of eighth graders could not read at grade level.

By 2020, only an estimated 50 million Americans will be qualified to fill 123 million highly skilled, highly paid jobs.

Among 30 developed countries, the United States ranks 25th in math and 21st in science.

America’s top math students rank 25th out of 30 countries when compared with
top students elsewhere in the world.

By the end of 8th grade, U.S. students are two years behind in the math being studied by peers in other countries.

Sixty eight percent of 8th graders can’t read at their grade level, and most will
never catch up.

More than 1.2 million students drop out of school every year. That’s more than
6,000 students every school day and one every 26 seconds.

The national high school graduation rate is only 70 percent and rates are much lower for minority students. Only about half of the nation’s African-American and Latino students graduate on time from high school.

A University of Michigan study comparing the Chinese and U.S. public education systems revealed some interesting differences between our approaches to education that may contain the ‘secret’ to improving our ambitious public school system. The study concluded that “If schools in the U.S. public school system were to incorporate the positive aspects that make the Chinese school system so successful, schools in the U.S. would in turn be more successful.” Some of the differences between the U.S. and Chinese public school systems as noted by the University of Michigan study are as follows:

Teachers in China are given more respect than teachers in the U.S. For example, teachers do not get taxed on their salary, and they receive their own national holiday, Teachers Day, on September 29th.

Chinese schools have a hard work ethic, resulting in student success.

Chinese schools do not segregate high achieving students from lower achieving students through tracking levels, like in the U.S. This is mostly due to the belief that all students can succeed if they put in the effort.

While American students have the same amount of allocated time as Chinese students, the amount of engaged time spent in school is dramatically less than their Chinese counterparts.

State curriculums and state testing does not make sense when standardized tests and textbooks are nationally normed and marked, respectively.

The American public school system has traditionally been one of our nation’s biggest strengths and taking the appropriate steps to ensure that our children are properly educated is critical to our country’s success.

Public school ratings are released each year to try to establish a wide database of information for parents to look into. When it comes to choosing a school for your child, the ultimate goal is for the best education one can both afford and the school can provide. There are endless categories that are used to judge each school, but the main ones that usually stand out are test scores, class sizes, enrollment by grade, ethnic/racial groups, economic groups, population distribution by age, household income, and educational expenditures.

Test scores is usually the biggest category that people look at when it comes to choosing a school for your child. The test scores represent the average results that the students in that school end up with on standardized tests or similar since it depends on how the state decides to do their testing procedures. A school with higher tests scores can be assumed to have a better educational, or preparation system in place. Although this may be generally true that those higher scores represent a better education, this is not always the case and it should only be used in addition to other categories. Picking the highest scoring school over any others is a sure way to make a naïve decision.

Class sizes always come up high on the list of what you are looking at with a school. It has been documented that smaller class sizes usually ends up with a much better education. The premise behind this is that the teachers have less work involved with each class so they can spend more time with the students and less time grading papers. There is more one-on-one time and more time in total divided by each student, whether that is more questions answered, or more topics covered. The more time that a teacher can spend with each individual student, the better the learning experience becomes for the students. Keep in mind though that smaller class sizes is detrimental to the schools budget since they have to sacrifice revenue from less attending students to accommodate. It is important for the schools to strike a balance between the cost of the smaller class sizes and the benefits of the intimate setting on the quality of education delivered.

Ethnic or Racial groups data is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, it may be imperative that the student be placed in a school that is most fitting for him. Regardless of law and racial equality, research has proven that most people feel comfortable when they have friends of similar interests and who are most like themselves. If a non-Hispanic child is placed in a predominately-Hispanic school, it may be difficult for him to be happy which in turn would lead to lower test scores. This is not always the case, but one should consider this and ensure the school is a best fit. Most schools do not fall into this category though.

Economic groups are a way that many people gauge the education that the school will provide. Data shows that as an increase in the percentage of economically disadvantaged students, SAT test scores decrease. It is an inverse relationship and it is a big problem for schools in poorer areas. The most important part of this category is comparing the school to the district or state. If the school were very low compared to the district, it would definitely show that this particular school should have a better education and may be a wise choice.

Lastly, one of the biggest indicators for educational performance would be the educational expenditures. This category shows how much the school spends on each student. It can be said that the greater dollar amount spent per student should indicate a greater education. This is not always the case, but many schools will use these numbers as a great way to publically advertise the school. The most important thing to consider here is comparison to the district and state and then uses the rating to compare with the rest of the categories.